Event Report! Dyersburg Comic and Pop Culture Convention

Greetings Fellow Dice and Clix Fans!

Dyersburg is not a huge town, so for it to have its very own comic convention is kind of a big deal. My FLGS (where I volunteer) had a booth set up and even hosted one of the guest artists the night before the convention. Mr. John Lucas was kind enough to sit at the shop for a few hours and do some sketches and commissions the night before the show.

Normally, I don’t publish pictures of myself, but how could I ask Mr. Lucas to be in a picture with the sketch he did for me and not be in it myself? Everyone knows how much I love Ponies and Pinkie in particular. Just about everyone knows I love Deadpool too, and those two are like two chimichangas in a fryer. How could I not ask for PinkiePool as my sketch?! Mr. Lucas insists that she be called DeadPony though.

How amazing is that sketch?! He even signed the card for me too. I purchased a Doctor Strange print from him while he was at the store – which is an amazing piece of art! We had several other fans come in for sketches, autographs, and prints as well. Friday night before the convention was already turning out to be awesome!

Saturday started off busy and stayed that way up until the end. The first ever Dyersburg Comic Con was a great success on all sides! Vendors left happy, artists were busy, cosplayers were in abundance, con-goers left smiling and happy with arms of goodies, and Mac’s BBQ was soooo very good. I have to thank the convention organizers for bringing in such a wonderful food truck. Con-goers didn’t need to leave the grounds to get some really good food at a reasonable price. Not to mention, it was super convenient for the vendors too!

There was a steady inflow of visitors all day long, which was really nice because it kept the venue buzzing with activity. Our booth was in the lobby, where we had space to put up the tournament tables, and we were decently busy all day long. There were lots of great conversations from visitors and fellow vendors alike! Santiago Cirilo(Julio from the Walking Dead) was a featured guest, and he would stroll around the convention and talk to everyone. I’ve never seen an actor do something like that at a convention without loads of security and about fifty feet between them and their fans. He was really nice to everyone and everyone seemed to enjoy talking to him.

Being busy was a blessing and a curse at the same time. There were two of us running the booth, but we were very busy, leaving little time for either of us to sneak away and browse the convention hall. There were a few artists that I didn’t really have an opportunity to meet because they were visibly busy when I made my brief scuttle around the vendor hall.

I was able to speak with Joe Staton, Rick Burchett, Larry Cathey, Jim Hall, Wade Moore from Brainstoms Laboratory, and Brad Moore(death metal artist). I was regrettably not able to make it to the booths of Mr. Holmes, Jacob Rougemont, or Kelly Williams. I was really sad about that because I love speaking with writers, authors, and artists of all kinds at any convention I go to. I did speak with Mr. Holmes for a few minutes before the show, but only because he let me use some of his tape. It’s very difficult when you’re a vendor to make it around the convention and spend some quality time in conversation and browsing. I still had tons of fun and I wouldn’t have changed anything about the day. Mr. Lucas even stopped by our booth briefly before he needed to return to his table.

There was costume contest that happened right in the lobby and we had front row seats to it. I was happy to see so many independent cosplayers in attendance! There were a couple of groups there as well, like the Midsouth Garrison of the 501st Legion and Costumers for Christ. Those two groups are super awesome and I’m so glad we were next to them in the lobby.

We were going to host a Dice Masters Prime event as well as side events, but everyone was so excited about this first ever local convention, that we didn’t have enough players to meet our minimum number. I am also aware that many of our players, far and near, were not going to be able to afford both the convention ticket and the tournament entry fee. We are working on a strategy for next year to remedy this. We also want to incorporate some HeroClix events for next year as well. I’m hoping we can work something out that will be beneficial to our players and to the convention managers as well. We did host some open gaming with board games that went really well, and that may also be something that we promote for next year.

Out of all the excitement and the fun of the day, I think what made me smile the most though, was seeing the faces of con-goers light up when they came across a treasure they were looking for.